County connects to national emergency alert system

As of the beginning of the year, Douglas County is connected to a national network for emergency alerts.

According to the Federal Emergency Management Agency, four Western Nevada counties were authorized to access the emergency alert systems as a unit.

Douglas, Lyon, Storey and Carson City received credentials to participate in the Integrated Public Alert and Warning System.

"The Quad County Emergency Managers work in close collaboration to ensure the safety and resiliency of our communities," Douglas spokeswoman Melissa Blosser said Wednesday. "The iPAWS system is a major improvement to our public alerting and warning capabilities, in addition to our local community notification system, we can now alert and warn the public through commercial television and radio broadcasts, along with the wireless emergency alert program."

The new program does not require residents to sign up or register, unlike the community notification system, because it is already active on smart phones.

"This enables local emergency officials to send warning messages to those either directly or potential directly impacted by an incident, such as wildland fire, flood or missing children through Amber Alerts," Blosser said. "This increased capability will ensure that we can maximize our life and property saving warnings to residents and visitors in our region."

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Blosser said the system is only used for major events. Douglas also has a reverse 911 system, which still requires registration.

"We would like those with cell phones to still register their cell phone to their address through Reverse 911 so we can get other alerts to them," she said.